From the fifteenth century to the seventeenth century, the world successively entered the Era of Great Navigation, also known as the Great Discovery of Geography. The protagonists of this period are Europeans, who have a new understanding of the world during this period and have played a role in promoting the development of world civilization. Since the Age of Navigation, various countries have recognized the importance of the sea, the development of the country is no longer limited to the land, some countries with small land area, the focus of national construction is on the sea, such as Portugal, Spain, Britain and other countries. The focus of these countries' construction has always been on the sea, and if they want to compete for supremacy at sea, they must have a strong fleet.
This is a truth on land, and if you want to compete for more resources, you must be more powerful than whose fleet. Therefore, if you want to develop the maritime industry, you must have a strong navy as a supplement. Portugal, Spain, Britain and other countries have very powerful navies, which allows the merchant ships of these countries to gallop on the sea without scruples. Backed by a powerful navy, European merchants who traveled over the sea could trade on the sea.
The benefits of vigorously developing the marine industry to these countries are also enormous, and these small European countries have become world powers by relying on vast marine resources. One of the most powerful is the United Kingdom, the British Navy in the sea navigation era has defeated Portugal, Spain and other countries, a leap to become the hegemon of the sea, the establishment of the so-called sun does not set the empire, the sun does not set means that the sun rises and the sun sets where the land is British, from this name can see the vastness of the British colonies. At the time of the Great Navigation Age in Europe, the native region was experiencing the Renaissance, the embryonic of capitalism had been born, and the primitive accumulation of capitalism was bloody. This turned the age of great navigation into a colonial era, and powerful European countries established a large number of colonies around the world to complete the primitive accumulation of capitalism.
The world pattern, dominated by European countries, continued until the first world war. The European countries of this period have completed the primitive accumulation of capitalism, and the countries of all countries have established perfect navies. During the expansion of the countries, conflicts of interest led to the outbreak of the First World War. After the First World War, The United Kingdom and other European countries entered a period of weakness, and the war deprived European countries of the ability to dominate the world, and replaced it with the United States. When the United States was in a great war in Various European countries, it made a lot of money in the european countries, and after the end of the First World War, the United States also made a lot of money. The United States spent a lot of money to develop its own navy and built a powerful navigation fleet, which made the United States speak sharply after World War I.
After the end of the First World War, the world pattern underwent major changes, and by the time of the Second World War, the country with the most powerful voice in the world had changed from Britain to the United States. Looking at it in this way, from the age of great navigation to the second world war, if you want to become a great power, you must have a strong navy, and if you want to become the country with the heaviest voice in the world, the navy must be the strongest. This is an inevitable law of the development of the marine age, but in the time of World War II, there was a powerful country that did not follow this law. The army is very strong, but the sense of navy is so weak that some people doubt whether the country has a navy, and this country is the Soviet Union.
The Soviet Union was established in 1922 as a socialist state led by the Red Army of the Soviet Union to overthrow the feudal dynasty. The period of the founding of the state was the period of the First World War and the Second World War, and the Soviet Union was founded very late compared to other capitalist countries. Neither caught up with the Age of Discovery nor the First World War, and it took less than twenty years from establishment to power, which is quite incredible. By the time World War II broke out, the Soviet Union already had a certain right to speak internationally. During the Second World War, various countries did not give up sea supremacy, but on the contrary, the competition for sea supremacy became more intense. The navies of various countries also gradually became stronger in World War II, but the Soviet navy has been tepid throughout World War II and even until the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Soviet Army is very strong, but the Navy is weak, and even some people compare the Mongolian Navy with the Soviet Navy, indicating that the Mongolian Navy ranks first from the bottom, and the Soviet Navy ranks second to the bottom. As a military power, the Soviet Union was an unreasonable thing. Today, I will take you to analyze and analyze the reasons together.
The first thing to say is the geographical environment. As we all know, the main reason why Mongolia's navy cannot develop is its geographical location. Mongolia is a typical landlocked country, there is no shadow of the sea around the country at all, it is difficult to see a little river in the country, there is no sea outlet at all, how can the navy be developed? Then some people have to ask, the Soviet Union's land area is the largest in the world, and the entire north of the country is next to the sea, compared to Mongolia, I don't know how much better, why can't it develop? The territory of the USSR was large and also close to the sea. But the perennially frozen Arctic Ocean in the north of the Soviet Union is bordered by the Sea of Japan to the east, the Baltic Sea of the European countries to the west, not to mention the south, next to Mongolia. So don't look at the territory of the Soviet Union, but the marine environment is not good. A suitable outlet can not be found in the huge field, a better port in the Baltic Sea, the location of the sea is extremely narrow, like a narrow path, as long as the European countries want to, in this outlet to set up a few heavy artillery, can completely block here, and then throw a bunch of mines is enough to block here. Such an outlet without strategic depth is the best outlet that can be taken out of the Soviet Union.
Long before the Soviet Union, Russia had produced a great emperor, Peter the Great. Peter the Great's reign coincided with the tail end of the Age of Discovery, and Peter the Great spent his life vigorously developing the Russian navy, vigorously imitating European countries during his reign, hiring the best shipbuilders and navigators to build a navy. Peter the Great wanted to fight for Russia's place in the Age of Discovery, but with little success. The Russian Far East Fleet, which had been built up so hard, was almost completely destroyed by the Japanese during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. During the Russo-Japanese battle, the Russian fleet originally stationed in the Baltic Sea also came to support, and the two fleets that could be used were completely destroyed in the Japanese-Russian War I. Therefore, after the outbreak of World War II, the Japanese Navy did not even look at the Soviet Navy, because the Soviet Navy did not recover at all.
In World War II, the Soviet Union was to the east by the powerful Japanese fleet, but to the west? As mentioned above, the port to the west of the Soviet Union is in the Baltic Sea, and it is in the deepest part of the Baltic Sea, on one side of the sea and the other three sides are Poland, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Sweden and other countries. These countries encircled the Baltic Sea, and it was almost impossible for the Soviet Navy to rush out of the Baltic Sea. Before the outbreak of World War II, the Soviet Union was not without effort. The Soviet Union desperately wanted to occupy Finland because it valued the sea outlet in Finland and wanted to be closer to the mouth of the Atlantic Ocean in the Baltic Sea. During World War II, germany, the Soviet Union's sworn enemy, had more than a hundred times better access to the sea than the Soviet Union. As long as Germany occupied Denmark, it basically occupied the most favorable outlet to the sea. Thus, in World War II, Nazi Germany occupied Denmark within a few hours and regarded Denmark as its own forbidden area. Therefore, during World War II, although Nazi Germany's navy was inferior to the Japanese navy, it did not look down on the Soviet navy at all.
The maritime environment in the Soviet Union was very harsh, and during the most difficult period of World War II, the United States wanted to transport supplies from the sea for the Soviet Union, which was fighting germany, but it could not be transported at all, and it was basically intercepted by German submarines.
Geographical location was the most critical reason why the Soviet Navy could not develop, and secondly, the Soviet Union was founded for a short time. The country's foundation is weak, and the degree of industrialization cannot be compared with those countries that have plundered the world for hundreds of years. As soon as the country was founded, the economy was still unstable, and it caught up with the Second World War, and all industrial facilities had to ensure the development of the army and air force first, so there was no extra money and resources to build a useless navy.
The international situation was also very unfavorable to the Soviet Union at that time, because of the different ideologies, although in World War II, the Soviet Union and the European countries were allies, but the European countries were secretly guarding against the Soviet Union. The United States, Britain, Japan, Germany, and other countries all blockaded the Soviet Union at sea, hoping to curb the development of the Soviet Union.
The geographical environment of the Soviet Union is not all inferior, after all, the territory is vast, and it is impossible for other countries to attack important cities in the Soviet Union through their navies. The Soviet Union was well aware that its maritime power was in an extremely inferior position, so it could only build a strong missile force and army as much as possible to ensure its military strength, and at the same time establish a sound defense depth system, relying on strong strategic depth to drag the enemy when the enemy attacked.